It started, much like other stories of this sort, on a day that couldn’t get any more normal. Car horns rang out in their gridlock serenade, accompanied by the angry rants of the drivers and passengers alike. The sidewalks are crowded with more people than logically possible. The pickpockets were more active that day than normal, luckily, I know all of them by name.

Yes, a normal day in the Big Apple. I, a woman with rust color hair tied back in a ponytail, a white button-up, dress pants, and gray sneakers were getting ready to go home. Despite, just turning seventeen that spring I was already working a forty-hour-a-week job at the Night Owl, a twenty-four-hour bar that lives up to its name. Why am I working forty hours a week at a bar? Well, when you must support yourself and your little sister, you do what you have to do.

Our parents died when I was thirteen. My sister Hana, who is a year younger than me, was my only family. We bounced around the system together, going from foster home to foster home. Somewhere ok, and others I hope burn to the ground. Once I turned fifteen I got emancipated. Luckily, I was able to claim our parents’ life insurgence, it was a start.

With it, I got us a one-bedroom apartment, that we still live in today. After, that I started working part-time jobs, some physical labor, and others customer service. I also when to school on top of it. It was in no way easy, and I went many days without any sleep, but I graduated with honors, and we never lived without. It helped that Hana also got a job when she entered high school. I told her I’d handle things and to just focus on school, but she was stubborn and didn’t listen. I guess stubbornness is genetic.

I had just gotten off work that day and was leaving the bar. Outside, standing under a streetlight, was a blonde girl dressed in jeans, a purple jacket, and white sneakers. She saw me and ran over giving me a hug.

“Hey! What are you doing here Hana? Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” I asked with a look of surprise on my face.

She let go and smiled, “I just got paid and I thought that you might be hungry.” She replied.

My day had been hell. Six drunk morons, seven-bar fights, and thirteen people passed out. I was SO ready to go home. When I have a day like this Hana always seems to know. Don’t ask me how, I’ve been trying to figure it out for sixteen years. I do know, once she finds out she goes out of her way to make things better in any way she can. It makes me wonder which of us is the older sibling.

I smile back, and we begin to walk. The only place open at this time of day is Jimmy’s Dinner. It’s in no way a five-star restaurant, but the food is hot. The gridlock was a little better than normal and slowly but surely the city was coming to life. On the way there we chatted about this and that. Just enjoying the morning air and each other’s company. Neither of us could have predicted the events that were about to transpire.

We decide to cross through Central Park. We figured it was faster than going around. As we enter the south gate the wind starts to pick up and the clouds become dark like it was fixing to down poor. When Hana saw the coming storm, she clinked to my arm.

Ever since she was little, she’d always had a fear of storms. I don’t know if it’s the thunder and the lightning, or the wind, but they seemed to scare her to her core. I patted her head and told her the only thing I could do,

“It’ll be alright. Jimmies isn’t too far now; we’ll be inside before you know it.”

She looked up at me with tears in her eyes, I wipe them away and give her a gentle smile. That seemed to give her some courage as she dried her tears and took ahold of my hand with a look of determination. We began running hand in hand trying to beat the rain. We were coming up on 66th Street when everything started to slow.

I didn’t notice it at first, but little by little things started to seem off. The wind was blowing but the leaves on the trees didn’t seem to move. Cars, motorcycles, and the stupid electric scooter on the street in front of us were standing still, on a green light and I don’t hear a single F.

I quickly realized that something was wrong, and so did Hana. Her expression was dark, and her pale blue eyes filled with terror. Before I could do anything the ground beneath my feet disappeared, like someone had opened a trap door. We quickly drop like a led balloon.

We fall faster and faster into a void of black. The farther we fall the harder it is to hold on to each other. Like an invisible force is trying to pull us apart, Hana is being pulled up and I’m being pulled down. I held on to her with both hands and all my strength, but it amounted to nothing, as Hana slipped through my fingers.

It happened in an instant, I had her, and then she was gone. I didn’t even see it happen; it was like the void swallowed her up leaving nothing behind. I tried looking around for her, but I couldn’t move, I couldn’t even breathe. It felt like I was being crushed by gravity from all directions. My arm was still held up above my head, hand stretched out. I could still feel her warmth and see the despite look in her eyes.

I decided that I didn’t care if my body was ripped apart or if my very soul is crushed to dust, I’d find her and bring her home, where she will never have to make that face again. The more I struggled the deeper into the void I was pulled. It felt like the weight of the whole world was bearing down on me.

As I began to blackout, I saw a figure dressed in white. Around her were small orbs that looked like fireflies that glowed a pale white. She held out her arms and hugged me. When she did it felt like I became weightless. Like the pressure that threatened to crush me was never there at all. I tried to talk, but no sound would come out. The figure had a veil that covered her whole face, and a dress that seemed to cover every inch of her body, leaving only her scared hands exposed. The black void began to fade to white. The figure picked me up towards the void that’s faded completely to white.

She let me go and I begin to float, and my body slowly started to disappear, being engulfed in white. Unlike the pressure from before this felt warm and inviting. The white figure began to talk to me as I was fading away.

But before I could figure out what she said, I’d blackout and fade completely away.